Miscommitment: Client took content sample and never paid for it?

[#1]

So I recently bid on a project; the client asked me to do a writeup for her as a sample; if approved, she will assign the remaining articles and pay altogether, so I trusted her and agreed.

After I submitted, she highlighted some paras as plagiarized. My Copyscape ended at that time, but I was certain it wasn't plagiarized. On speaking to her, she said her budget is $10, which I assumed was for one article. Later she said it's for I don't know how many; however, she was not clear with her goals.

My guess she wanted to work for a low price. The article was like a landing page 300 words each. When I asked her what she wants to pay, she stopped replying when I asked her to pay for that article; she said that it's plagiarized when I told her it's running unique on Copyscape, she stopped replying to me. 

How to deal with such clients, and is there a way to report such activity on Upwork?

[#2]

The way to deal with clients such as that one is to avoid them. Meanwhile...

If I understand correctly, you agreed to write a sample for which you would only be paid if the client liked it and assigned additional articles. That amounts to free work. The client violated UW's ToS when she asked for it and you set yourself up to be cheated when you agreed to it.

Only perform work for which you have a funded milestone and only submit as much of the completed work as is covered by the funds in escrow for the milestone. When a client is vague about her budget and/or how she wants to pay across a series of deliverables, then you need to get specific and if she resists nailing it down, walk away. 

[#3]

Ok, thanks for guiding me, is there some way I can report that specific client to Upwork?

[#4 · Accepted solution]

Hi Anum,

You can report any suspicious or inappropriate activity by sending a flag. Here's how.